Thursday, June 28, 2012

Another merit badge down, or at least mostly down. Sign-offs in two weeks, but this am I got Delaney up at 6:30am and we headed down to Castlewood Canyon, where we met 5 other boys and a couple adults for a climbing session. Our Scoutmaster climbs a lot and he set up ropes at the top for rappelling down.

He showed us the triple anchor system needed. Here we only have two, but we ended up adding a third from a tree. Boy Scouts wants 3, even though most climbers can use two.

Delaney did good, rappelling down here on his first attempt. A little heavy breathing, but he came down without incident.

Harnessed and helmet’d, he was ready for more climbing.

His second rappel went fine, as did his third, and he was done.

The boys had to do 3 rappels, 3 belays, and 3 climbs on different routes. Delaney thought the belay part was boring, but he did his three without an issue.

I wasn’t sure he’d do much on the climbing, but he did well, working hard and spending time looking for hand holds, not giving up too quickly. He didn’t make it to the top of any of the climbs, but most of the boys didn’t. Only a few got there, and a few had help with strong Scoutmasters pulling on the ropes.

A good day, and now Delaney should have another merit badge for his sash in August.